Placentia-Linda Hospital fined $50,000 for sex assaults on patients

Placentia-Linda Hospital has been fined $50,000 after two female patients were sexually assaulted by an anesthesiologist, the California Department of Public Health announced Wednesday.

The fine is the hospital's first and stems from the 2011 arrest of Dr. Yashwant B. Giri of Cypress. Last year, he pleaded not guilty to five felony charges. He has been barred from practicing medicine while his legal case is under way.

The Placentia hospital was one of seven across the state to be fined for deficiencies causing serious harm or death to patients. Since 2007, California has levied $10.4 million in fines to 142 hospitals.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Placentia-Linda said it plans to appeal the fine.

"We take seriously our responsibility to deliver quality, safe health care to our patients. ... When we became aware of this matter, we reported it to the State of California, and the medical staff member has not been on our staff since April 2011," the hospital said.

The state's investigative report does not name the anesthesiologist, but the facts in the case match earlier Register coverage of Giri's arrest in May 2011.

The documents give the following account:

In April 2011, the hospital reported to the state and police that a female employee saw a male anesthesiologist fondle the breasts of a female patient while she was under anesthesia for surgery.

The document redacts the date of the employee's allegation, but says it was not immediately reported to police. In a previous statement to the media, Placentia-Linda said it learned of the allegation in March 2011.

The report says that before police were notified, the doctor was taken off the surgery schedule but was practicing at other hospitals.

The allegation was not the first against the anesthesiologist, the report says.

During an interview with the state, the hospital's chief anesthesiologist said that about a year before, a nurse had reported to him that a surgical technician had seen the anesthesiologist touch a female patient's genitals while he was performing a nerve block to numb the lower body.

The chief anesthesiologist did not report the incident to administration, as called for by the hospital's policy, but instructed the nurse and surgical technician to monitor him during surgeries.

In a plan of correction filed with the state, the hospital said staff underwent training on proper reporting of incidents such as a sexual abuse.

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